00:30 Rob welcomes back Neal Glatt and they talk about the referral partnership between their two companies.

01:59 Why the middle of the design-build market has dried up, and why residential growth needs marketing while commercial growth needs strong salespeople.

03:27 The big question: sales planning. Why calling about your marketing budget in February is already too late.

04:15 Assess before you train. A landscape company with nine account managers learned only five had the sales DNA to benefit from training.

06:57 The real hiring timeline. Why great industry salespeople are rarely available, why HVAC, janitorial and paving reps make good recruits, and why it takes 10 to 16 weeks to get a new hire prospecting.

09:44 The only three ways to grow sales: bigger average sale, more selling time, or a better close rate.

12:12 Raising the floor and adding offerings like lighting, seating walls and plunge pools to lift average ticket size.

12:55 From $20 lawn cuts door to door in Detroit to a $5M+ per year retail portfolio, with the exact same objections.

14:16 The California turf law and why it's a rare example of a real reason a rep's numbers should jump.

15:51 When your team is already maxed out: add headcount, and time hires four months before your buying window (commercial, design-build and snow each have different seasons).

17:26 Territory management: splitting by geography vs. specializing by customer type, like hospitals vs. HOAs.

20:02 Why sales is usually the last thing owners fix, and the "do we take this job just to keep crews busy" trap.

24:55 Sales is an operation too. Why ops work comes to you but a sales day starts empty, and how a fuel-gauge dashboard drives accountability.

29:52 Ending the sales vs. ops war. Ops defines what the company serves best, sales only chases that, and why nobody owns even 3% of their market.

33:36 Metrics nobody tracks: true cost per sales call, activities to appointments, and proposal age.

36:10 Pipedrive's "deal rot," why deal stages matter, and how modern CRMs make tracking easy.

37:44 Customer acquisition cost, the 92% retention standard for account managers, and lifetime customer value.

41:25 How to get your team assessed for sales DNA.

42:35 Neal's recommended resource: Cassidy Gutter on LinkedIn.

00:29 Jay returns to the show, this time as the author of The Green Talent Playbook

01:27 Why Jay wrote the book, and why money alone doesn't fix retention

03:24 Rob on the "law of the mirror": your team either copies you or you're tolerating it

04:35 The three leaders who shaped Jay, plus the owner whose approval depended on his mood

07:20 Jay's eight pillars of recruiting and retention

08:20 Signs your culture is off: blame, finger pointing, and protecting toxic high performers

10:00 Culture defined as what you encourage, discourage, permit, or frown upon

11:43 How Rob's team turned a weekly wins huddle into a weekly fails huddle

12:52 Building culture on purpose, with lessons from Amy Nakai of Rooted Tree Specialists

14:24 Writing your company's "eulogy" and why culture needs new systems as you scale

15:33 Core values that actually work: the rock through the window example

17:14 Culture vs. strategy, and core values as the petri dish

18:24 Why "anyone" is the wrong hire and how to build an ideal candidate profile

19:42 Find your rock stars and look for what they have in common

20:45 Founders who can't let go: if five sales directors failed, the problem isn't them

24:28 Candidate experience and the CareerPlug data on why people accept or decline offers

25:49 What a good job posting looks like: lead with purpose, not "can lift 50 lbs"

28:20 Respond within 24 hours, skip the four interview rounds, make an offer within a week

29:27 Why you're losing workers to other trades that pay $4 to $7 more per hour

31:12 Career paths and the SHRM and McKinsey numbers on why people leave

32:24 How a 20 person company can build objective promotion standards

34:47 Scott Lesak's training program at Kasel Rocks, with a 25% pay bump in week one

35:46 Matching your org chart to your growth plan, and founders who outrun their teams

37:06 How to get the book, where Jay is speaking, and how to reach him